Z
by Charos
Summary: A story of the beginning of, and progress of the undead plague, I'm hoping to try and show some level of scope to this, may follow different characters at different points but I plan to bring any diverging stories at least somewhat together.
1. Chapter 1

Z

**This is my first Fanfic, I put it in the Dawn folder because it's the most populous, it should be said however that a lot of this idea came from Max Brooks' "World War Z", and of course Romero's masterpieces. Comments welcome, I'm still debating on the fast/slow thing since in here (lacking any reference to WHICH Dawn we're talking) I can still choose, so if you've any preference now's the time because once Chapter 1's out it'll be too late :) apologies on it's length and lack of action, but hey...one needs to set things up.**

Prologue

Darryl Burrows anxiously checked his watch and instinctively glanced at the clock on the wall to correspond. "You know," a voice muttered from his left, "that's the seventh time you've done that in the last 45 minutes". Darryl took a drag from his cigarette and closed his eyes for a second, "do you have any idea how rare a corneal isoplastic graft is? Fate must have a special place in her heart for this chick." Beth Chatwood glanced at her colleague and raised her eyebrow, "yeah," she chuckled, "and her sister must have really pissed off Atropos."

Darryl put out his cigarette, twisting the butt into the white sand in the receptacle; he loved being a doctor, the money, the status, hell, even the whole helping people thing didn't hurt, but he hated uncertain waits. "So how the hell did this woman die anyway?" Beth asked walking briskly past the triage station, following Darryl; truth was she hated the guy, his perpetual womanizing, complete lack of care as to his patients, and the fact that she was pretty certain he used quite a few stimulants to help with staying awake during long procedures, but she had to admit he was a brilliant surgeon and most people would kill their own mothers to pick up a Fellowship under him. "Car accident," Darryl said, glancing at a passing nurse and smiling, his eyes lingered for a moment at her passing frame before he continued, "somehow managed to swing her car into oncoming traffic and some Mack truck slammed into her side." Frankly, it didn't really matter to Darryl how the woman had died, only that her corneas had remained intact and (so he was told) were on their way to him right now. The patient, Mary...somethingorother was in the OR now and if this damned Ambulance would arrive he could start.

Almost on cue the familiar Wailing sound of an approaching bus came drifting through from the doorway. The two turned and sped purposefully through the complex corridors of the Toronto General Hospital, approaching the OR and began to prep for surgery. The procedure was one that Darryl had extensive experience in; he had spent years specializing in ophthalmology and had the bank account to show for it. The actual surgery went exceedingly smoothly, since the donor was the patient's twin there was virtually no risk of rejection. It took only an hour, there was a small amount of bleeding initially but it stopped quite readily, the patient was moved to another room and the pair washed up.

Beth was famished and made a quick beeline for the cafeteria, ordering a ham sandwich and a coffee. "How the fuck do they always manage to make the ham look like melting ice cream" she muttered under her breath, taking a large bite and trying to swallow without allowing it to touch her taste buds, quickly washing it down with her drink. Feeling a little better she walked to the lounge and grabbed a newspaper, but could find nothing of interest to read. She considered going home to get some sleep but decided to have a cigarette out back first, she was pretty tired and the patient seemed perfectly fine. As she lit the end of her cigarette she noticed the ambulance that had gone to pick up the corneas she had just transplanted, the paramedic waved at her. As he strode over to where she was she recognized that she'd talked with him before she struggled to remember his name, Marty, right, he read philosophy and they'd talked a few times about some of their favourite works.

"Hey Beth," Marty breathed, "you and Burrows did that transplant we just brought in didn't you?" "Yeah, great timing for her actually, went smoothly as you could expect." Marty nodded, "you're lucky they'd been any good, the truck had ripped the top of the window frame in, that's what killed her I think, if it had been a few inches over it'd have ripped right through the eye." Beth nodded thinking back to Darryl's comment on fate; she caught herself chuckling a little, Marty looked at her a little strangely but continued on. "She helped a lot of people though, two organs going to the States, and one more in Holland." Beth smiled and started to comment on some tangential thought on Synchronicity she had when he cell went off. She picked up and mechanically said "Dr. Chatwood", the voice on the other end was the nurse working the floor the patient was on, the nurse quickly stated that the patient's blood pressure had dropped and she had woken up complaining of aching joints. Beth responded that she was on her way, she nodded goodbye to Marty and jogged through the doorway. Why the hell would the patient have joint pain? That had nothing to do with the surgery, the anaesthesiologist was a good doctor, and she couldn't think of any anaesthetics that caused joint pain.

She got to the room and found the patient looking extremely pale, this was all wrong; these corneas were from her twin bloody sister, what could cause such paleness? She touched the woman's forehead, and fever? Looking up she noticed Burrows come walking into the room, he looked at the patient and paused for a moment with a slight look of confusion on his face, "What the hell happened to her?" he blurted out. "You tell me" Beth retorted, feeling a little defensive at his tone, the patient seemed to have slipped from somewhat pained delirium into unconsciousness again. "Jesus Beth, I think she's..." suddenly the EKG let off a long drawn-out tone and showed a flat line. "Shit!" Beth exclaimed running for the bed, the nurse, hearing the alarm came running to the room; Darryl turned to the patient, "Vasopressin, now." He moved to the patient and opened her airways, Beth was already performing chest compressions and he injected the drug into the patient. After a hectic few minutes, and a number of attempts at defibrillation the small team gave up.

Darryl was utterly mystified as to what had gone wrong, he was already thinking how he couldn't wait for the autopsy report to come back and replacing the equipment when he heard a rustling sound behind him, at the same moment he heard the clatter of a metal tray and a scream from the nurse. Turning around he felt a cold, electric jolt slide up his spine and a small squeak emitted from his throat...his patient was sitting up.


	2. Chapter 2

So I think I know what I'm going to do for the speed, hopefully you'll like it. There's a lot more action in this chapter and since much of it occurs within a minute or so of actual time, much less dialog. Please feel free to comment, I don't mind constructive criticism  I hope you like

Chapter 1

There was a taste of copper in her mouth, and her tongue hurt. Ever since she was a small child when Beth was having a bad dream she would bite her tongue to wake herself up, it was her form of pinching herself. After having seen her patients pale, auburn haired frame sit up on her hospital bed some ten minutes after she had been pronounced dead had caused such certainty that she was dreaming that she had bitten her tongue almost clear through with her left incisors.

The next few moments seemed somewhat of a blur to her, as though she were watching a train wreck from a short distance and was completely incapable of actually doing anything about it. The nurse on duty and Dr. Burrows both seemed to move in towards the patient in unison, Darryl seemed completely flabbergasted, none of his training had prepared him as to how to react if one of his dead patients suddenly sat up in their death bed of their own accord. The nurse instinctively reached out her arm and rested it on the patient's left shoulder, intending to lower her back in the bed. Beth glanced at the EKG readout and still saw no pulse, the sound had been turned off but she could still clearly see the straight line on the screen indicating no heart activity whatsoever.

The moment the nurse rested her hand on the young girl's shoulder, what seemed to Beth to be complete bedlam broke out. The girl lunged at the nurse with such force that her bed frame slid out from under her and was slammed into Darryl's hip. Darryl let out a groan and fell backwards into the room window, shattering it, before sliding down the wall and landing in the shards of glass that had tumbled into the room. The nurse let out an almost tangible shriek and fell through an IV pole; she ended up on her right side with her left hand stretched above her head. The woman, who had slammed into her, gripped her arm and suddenly lowered her head directly into her armpit; to Beth it seemed as though she was nuzzling her like a dog would to its owner, the nurse however didn't seem to react in the expected way and screamed so loudly that Beth actually backed up a couple of steps. The nurse, thrust with her right arm and managed to sit halfway up; it was then Beth heard a wet ripping sound, as though someone had ripped an entire roll of scotch tape off a blackboard. She could see red staining the nurse's uniform and, in a moment of horror could see a gaping hole in her armpit.

Her training coming into effect, she realized the Nurse's Subclavian artery had been nicked, in the same moment she glanced at the woman and could see red smeared all over her face. The bandages around her eyes were stained a horribly crimson and tissue was falling from her chewing mouth, the nurse was bleeding profusely, the floor was literally pooling with blood. Beth instinctively moved to handle the wound, she wouldn't last more than a couple minutes unless that arterial wound was closed. The nurse, in a sudden burst of adrenaline, jumped up just as Beth reached her and ran toward the doorway, Beth switching direction chased after her, out the door and into the stairwell.

Darryl languidly opened his eyes; he felt like he was at home but had something he had to do. Did his alarm not go off? Was he scheduled for surgery? 'Wait' he thought 'didn't I just finish surgery?' He could hear a wet smacking over to his left, the dog must be drinking from the toilet again. Rolling over Darryl let out a groan and pain raced up his back, radiating from his hip; suddenly the events of just a few moments before came flooding back to him, his patient...dead...pain.

The feeling of the bed frame and the hit against the window and wall flooded back to him, he tried to roll further onto his back again and sucked in breath as he felt something jagged piercing his thighs and ass. "God Damn it" he muttered, he realized from the pain in his hip that there had been a lot more damage than just some glass, he'd broken, or damn near broken it. He wasn't going to be able to walk, glancing around the room he could see his blood on the floor, and what was that damn smacking noise? As he realized that the amount of blood on the floor was way too much to have come from him, he'd be nearly dead if he'd lost that much blood, and it was in two pools, one really big one and a smaller one around him, what in the hell had gone on?

As he was pondering the source of the blood, the strange noise ceased and he could hear movement behind the bed frame. It wasn't the lack of noise that caught his attention however, but the sudden sound of somebody moving against the bed, followed by a slapping sound as a hand came up from behind the frame on top of the sheets. For a split second Darryl thought it looked almost comical, clown-like, this wickedly distinct, partly pale, make-up white and crimson smeared hand. As the woman's face came into view, however, all thoughts of mirth immediately fled from his mind. Her face was a grotesque mask of blood and gore, what looked to be flesh hung from a widely sliced lip. Her bandages were little more than ragged strips now and he realized she must have heard him when he swore. Her gown hung in tatters around her frame, and she seemed dazed, 'Of course she's dazed' Darryl thought, 'she was dead just a minute ago'. He shifted his weight intending to grip the windowsill and force himself to stand up, it was at this point he realized his mistake. A slight, though thunderous in his ears, crunch of glass came from the ground; the woman's head suddenly shifted and she let out a horrific moan, moving purposefully now she leapt onto the mattress. Darryl's split second thoughts of finding a weapon a weapon were cut short as his patient ran toward him, 'Oh fuck' he thought, Darryl Burrows was going to die.


	3. Chapter 3

**OK, so it's been awhile since I last posted but it's been hectic up here, I hope you all enjoy. All comments, queries and constructive criticism welcome. **

Chapter 2

Beth turned the corner to the left, the red line along the hallway blurred past her unnoticed as she raced to reach her injured colleague. None of what had happened had really sunk in for her, she remembered the patient sitting up, and the Nurse thrusting herself off the cold floor and then with a serious arterial injury sprinting past her in hysterics. The doorway to the stairwell swung slowly closed and Beth burst through, her momentum slamming her painfully through the steel and into the concrete stairway. She had raced down nearly an entire flight when she realized the constant trail of blood which had coated the floor, sprayed onto the hallway walls and even splattered the ceiling in places had abruptly ended. Beth forced herself to stop and took in her surroundings; she was on the fourth floor, above her she could hear a scuffling noise, and a whimpering sound. Turning on her heel she jogged up the stairs and caught herself precariously on the railing, slipping in something viscous on the ground.

Beneath her the nurse was curled into the foetal position, seemingly unconscious and breathing shallowly. Beth bent over her and tried to reach the artery with her hands, she had to stop this bleeding. After a moment she realized she was getting nowhere, she had to get to a room and some forceps, grabbing the nurse by the waist she pulled her desperately into the hallway. She panted heavily as she dragged the nurse along the floor, the young woman was sheet white save for the wide bloodstain and wound marring her side, Beth felt her begin to shiver and realized she was going into a seizure. Finally after a moment of violent shivering Beth heard a familiar rattling sound and all movement ceased, everything around her seemed to still for a moment and she placed her finger over the girls neck. She was surprised at how struck she was by the death, she had seen plenty of people die but rarely witnessed the violent cause of such death, nor had she known and worked with most.

All such contemplation was jarringly ripped from her head as an ear piercing shriek echoed through the hall. Beth had the fleeting thought of running; this sudden series of events had so shaken her that she was momentarily confused as to where the screams had originated. Realization quickly dawned on her face as she looked down the hall and she began to sprint toward the room in which she had left Dr. Burrows. She had just anxiously wondered why the screams had stopped when she rounded the baby blue door frame and stopped as suddenly as if she had run into a brick wall. The patient, still showing sparse patches of gauze around her head was huddled by the wall; with horror Beth recognized a pair of legs jutting out from beneath the thrashing form, and a pair of shoes she had seen before.

This was finally enough, nothing she had learned at school or since had prepared her to stoically handle something as utterly surreal as the last few minutes (or was that hours? The distinction was lost on her) had been. Her body instinctively turned from the horrific scene and she ran, her breathing was coming in hysterical bursts now; so engrossed in escaping the scene was the doctor that she didn't notice the vacant area where the nurse had been laying, neither did she notice as she ran that the trail of blood that had moments ago ended and pooled at the entrance to the stairwell now extended upwards toward the fifth floor. Such constructive observations were completely missed by her barely sane mind and she instinctively ran downstairs, down to the entrance to the hospital, to escape from this sick carnival show. Beth bounded precariously down the stairs three at a time, not registering the inherent danger in her descent.

After what seemed a lifetime to Beth she erupted from the doorway into the main entrance, straight into the chest of a walking orderly. Both the orderly and Beth keeled over onto the hard floor, Beth, still in shock over her recent ordeal, let out a choked scream drawing stares and murmurs from the surrounding onlookers. The orderly landed on his back and instinctively grabbed the sobbing woman, Beth's tumble had brought her slightly back to some semblance of reality and she immediately began brokenly stuttering at the confused orderly. "The...patient...sat up dead...dead!" Beth's voice rose and broke crazily, she grabbed the orderly and yelled. "You have to help them...she's crazy...she's dead!" again her voice cracked psychotically, she was barely managing any coherence at all.

The orderly, who had been somewhat annoyed and bemused at the same time initially took in the doctor's odd behaviour and blood spattered scrubs, "What in the hell happened to you? Are you alright? What's going on?" The barrage of questions did little to help the overwrought woman and she sobbed again, he decided to try another approach. Gently grabbing her wrist he raised himself up, he could see a few people from the surrounding observers making their way towards the obviously out of place scene. "Listen, I want you to look at me, OK? Right here, now, breathe in deeply, in through your nose and out through your mouth," Beth shakily followed his instructions, mentally trying to compel herself to calm down. She managed, with no little effort, to regain some semblance of composure after two or three deep breaths, her heart was still pounding alarmingly but she no longer felt as though her thoughts were grossly warped as though in a funhouse mirror. By this time the approaching onlookers, had reached the scene, one doctor who had been on his way in to work gently took her by the arm, recognizing his colleague, "Beth? Are you alright, what's happening?" Beth looked at her fellow doctor, "Oh god, John, they're dead both of them. The patient, she was fucking dead John and she killed them."

John Langley frowned uncomfortably as he heard this, "Dead? What are you talking about Beth, who's dead, when and who did they kill?" John was concerned by Beth's behaviour, he knew she was a great doctor, but he also knew she must have made a mistake, or more disquietingly, something was wrong; she sounded almost like some of the patients he'd heard in the Mental Health ward and that bothered him. "Doctor Burrows, the nurse...nurse, um, Battens. Dead, she killed both of them." John listened to the shaken nurse and furrowed his brow "how? Who killed them?" He had little time to contemplate her words, or get a reply however; a crackle broke out from the hip of a nearby security guard who had approached with the others, another security guard's voice broke into the thinking doctor's attention. Tinny screaming squawked out of the walkie-talkie, above the din the other security guard's voice brokenly came through. "Oh g..." static again, "...fifth floor...cking cra...ELP!" a piercing noise cut off the sound and the box went silent. Beth looked at John and he looked straight back into her frantic eyes, something was severely wrong.


End file.
